Nikon Indy 300

The V8 Supercars made their way to the Gold Coast for the 11th round of the Championship Series for the Nikon Indy 300. Finally it was back to the Sunshine State at Surfers Paradise where my team made a huge leap forward towards securing a great result.

My first day on the track was on Friday for practice and qualifying. Following practice I was confident that my car was good enough for top 10 in qualifying after ending practice in 7th position. However, the track conditions changed for qualifying and the most I could get out of the car was a time that placed me in 12th position.

Although I was disappointed with my qualifying result I knew that I had a quick car for the race. This was evident after moving from 12th to 10th in race 1 and having one of the quickest cars throughout the race. Due to the speed and consistency I had during the race our team decided to pit late and it turned out to be an excellent decision. I exited pit lane in 4th position and was able to hang on to finish the race in 4th.

Race 3 was the most exciting and action packed race of the weekend and also one of the hardest races I have ever competed in. I started the race in 4th and was surrounded by the top 3 drivers in the V8 Supercar Championship Series, Whincup, Tander and Winterbottom.

I had an absolute blinder start jumping into 3rd ahead of Mark Winterbottom. The pace for the first few laps of the race was blistering. I set a lap time that was just 2 tenths of a second off my qualifying time! I was able to latch onto the back of the leaders and stuck with them until the pit stop. My team had a very quick stop which saw me jump ahead of Tander and directly on to the tail of Whincup who was leading the race.

With just 10 laps to go I was still fighting hard to pass Whincup for the lead but also had Tander pressuring me every lap for my position. I was pushing the car to its limits before making a mistake with just 10 laps remaining. I locked up a tire while braking into turn 3 and was not able to slow the car for the corner. I felt sick as I was skidding towards Whincup in the braking zone and had to steer towards the wall in an attempt to avoid drilling the rear of his car. It is one thing to hurt your own race but it is another to destroy someone else’s race and possibly their championship so I was pleased that I was able to avoid him. I had to take the escape road and rejoined the race in 20th position. I made my way back up to 17th and gained enough points to tie for 8th for the round.

Overall, the weekend was a positive one for me and the team. I was pleased with the car speed in the race and also that I was able to run with some of the best drivers in the best cars in the field. Obviously I was really disappointed with the mistake that I made in race 3 but it is something that I will learn from and take into account for next time.

The V8 Supercar Series is quickly coming to an end with just 3 rounds to go. I am still sitting in 11th position and I plan to nail down some results to move back into the top 10 for the Championship. The next round is in Bahrain is 2 weeks.